UPSIDE of the DOWNTURN

Finishing Strong!

Going, going...

MONEY!

COMFORT!

SUCCESS!

Gone?

The fear across the land is palpable. It is mostly related to the economy and so let's begin there....

MONEY: Need some? Who doesn't? From Saudi Princes, to the most respected banks, every corner of the globe is looking under rugs to seek out lost pennies. Billionaires and millionaires have been taking their lives over the last weeks as their fortunes dwindle; along with wisdom; an understanding of what matters most.

Money & Success: Let's create some perspective on real success before we deal too much with the money problem...

I was a finisher...a tradesman in one of my previous work lives. After framers, hangers, and others do the rough start to a wall job, along come the finishers...those trusted to make the final wall look like framers had never been there; just an architect and owner's vision should become apparent.

In carpentry, "finishing" is the art part of making raw materials and basic structure appear as if the piece of wood was always meant to be an elegant paneled room, a deck for watching stars, a library that was meant for the best books, and chair that was built for a king. (Jesus of Nazareth, for example, was both framer and finisher.)

Starting over every day with new raw materials was never easy. But, just like life, it is something everyone must do with the rising sun, and the first step toward whatever you call "success." Finishing strong...day after day; that's where hard work blends with talent, ending up in a daily satisfying victory.

Daily Bread: It might feel like MONEY gives “life” to all things but it doesn’t. After living in a desperate third world country for two years and seeing enough destitution and squalor beyond any that a young lower-income California suburbanite's mind ever imagined, I swore I would never complain again. I learned if you had "daily bread" you could start over again. Hunger does an interesting thing; it motivates -- it moves you to action. Comfort doesn't do that.

Though I saw enough pain to break any heart, I also witnessed the ingredients for real success that guides me to this day. And, I quickly learned that...

Not all bread is equal: Coming back to a recession in California in the 1970’s was like going to the “Magic Kingdom” – Disneyland - for the first time. At home there was more bread than I could eat; a fridge that overflowed with so much stuff in one place; something I hadn't seen for years! After asking Mom if I could eat anything I wanted, I dove in, and then crashed at the kitchen table...

THE CONSTRAST between real poverty and simple abundance! Everything sparkled, and “hope” seemed to hang in the air. In fact the air was so thick with “anything was possible” that I felt, though penniless at the time and without a college education or vocational training, that I could literally become anything I wanted. After all, I was starting at the bottom... and looking up was filled with every dream or possibility imaginable! And I had my daily bread!

Fast forward 2009...

MONEY by the trillions lost in just 90 days! You need some?

COMFORT has dissipated in three months. You want some?

SUCCESS in the big things seems to have faded... You desire it again?

Having lived in shacks, surviving with what dignity I could during three recessions, I have witnessed many people “reach up,” take hold of their circumstances, rekindle hope, walk before they rode again, restore wealth, and get it for the first time under often mind-boggling conditions. Many have more peace in their life because of the perspective losing has given...

(My first book contract was given to me over the phone in my hospital bed with tubes coming out of three parts of body, no health insurance and no job.)

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKING: Someone said, "If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door." The current situation of financial chaos and political unrest is not your burden to carry alone, but felt by billions of people in the world today; it may require you to "build a door" just as finishers do. I tell you this from experience, but...

To encourage you a bit more, stop everything. Watch this:


How do people pull themselves up after losing everything?

Before you go away scroll down and listen to to a short piece of Paul Pott's "Britain's Got Talent" rendition of the opera "Nesum Dorma," as it ends with "Vincero! Vincero! Vincero!"

I will be addressing tried and true "solutions" during all of 2009.

MONEY, COMFORT, SUCCESS...It takes hard work, and conquering frequent despair, but also simple belief in dreams, looking at raw materials with inspiration for what they can become, and...

FINISHING STRONG!

NEXT WEEK: "Going the Distance - Endings and Beginnings Are Very Close."


James Pratt

www.powerthink.com
www.jmpratt.com